1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related generally to credit systems and consumer/credit issuer relationships and consumer/merchant relationships, and in particular, to a method and system for offering a credit product by a credit issuer to a consumer at a point-of-sale, such as in a person-to-person environment, online environment, etc.
2. Description of Related Art
In order to enable convenient purchases of goods and services by consumers, the financial service industry has developed many alternative payment methods that allow a consumer to engage in a transaction and receive goods and services on credit. For example, such alternative payment methods may include checks, ATM or debit cards, credit cards, charge cards, etc. Prior to the birth of virtual commerce, as discussed below, such payment options provided adequate convenience and transactional security to consumers and merchants in the marketplace. Virtual commerce and the growth of the Internet as a medium for commerce have placed pressure on the payment options discussed above on both the convenience and transactional security and profitability by the credit issuer. Currently, available payment options include significant shortcomings when applied to remote purchasers, such as purchases where the buyer and the seller (that is, the merchant) are not physically proximate during the transaction. Specific examples of remote purchases are mail order, telephone order, the Internet and wireless purchases.
In many situations, such as at a typical point-of-sale (POS), and during the transaction, the consumer may wish to obtain some credit product. For example, during an online transaction at a merchant's site, the consumer may wish to obtain a credit product, such as a standard credit card account, an online credit account or some other similar credit vehicle. In addition, the consumer may wish to obtain that credit product for use in the transaction that he or she is currently engaged in with the merchant.
According to the prior art, in such a situation, the consumer applies for the credit card at the home page or some other page of the merchant's site. In some instances the consumer may be responding to some displayed offer of credit issuer on the merchant-affiliated website. For example, the merchant may offer a discount, e.g., 10% discount on all purchases, if the consumer obtains that specific credit product. If the consumer does indeed select the option to apply for that credit product, he or she is directed or re-routed from the merchant's site to the credit issuer website. Such a situation is tenuous for the merchant, since it is never preferable for a potential purchaser to leave the website. In such a situation, if the consumer is displeased with the credit product application process, he or she may simply terminate the entire transaction and find another merchant site. Further, during the application process at the credit issuer website, various technical “glitches” may arise, causing the consumer to be disconnected from the site, misdirected from the credit issuer site, “knocked” offline, etc., all of which is a result of the movement from the merchant site to the credit issuer site.
One reason that the merchant must allow the consumer to be redirected to the credit issuer site is the merchant's lack of pertinent information and data regarding the credit product. For example, the merchant could not provide the appropriate terms and conditions of the credit product, nor the required Credit Member Agreement, both of which must, by law, be presented to the consumer (and acknowledged by the consumer) before establishing the credit account. Instead, this information is presented to the consumer at the credit issuer site, e.g., at the credit issuer application page, since the credit issuer desires to maintain absolute control over this important and dynamic data. The credit issuer may believe that the merchant will not display the information in the required format, will not update the information in a timely, complete and accurate manner, will not obtain the required acknowledgements, etc.
Another drawback to the prior art is the duplicative information required from the consumer during both the transaction and the credit application process. Since the consumer is directed from the merchant's site to the credit issuer's application page, many different data fields will require entry at both sites, again causing a less-than-desirable online experience by the consumer. For example, during the transaction, the consumer may have already supplied to the merchant his or her name, address, telephone number, e-mail, billing address, ship-to address, etc. Then, during the credit application phase on the credit issuer's site, the consumer must again enter all of this information, since the merchant site and the credit issuer site are separate. This represents a deficiency in the consumer/merchant/credit issuer relationship.